This conception of the word Hispanic is extensive because it includes all people with ties to a Latin American country or country with Spanish culture, while remaining specific by maintaining that that these connections are either through origin or culture.
Every ten years the U.S. government issues the decennial census which collects data about the actual count of people residing in the United States. The census contains questions pertaining to race and ethnicity, and these items are collected as self-identification items. When self-identifying on the census, respondents must choose the race or the races …show more content…
The OMB requires all government agencies to use five racial categories when collecting data which are: “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Asian,” “Black or African American,” “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander,” and “White,” (“Hispanic Origin”). Individuals who self-identify as ethnically Hispanic can choose to also identify as any of the racial categories. Every census since 1980 has included a, “distinct ethnic question separate from the race question,” (Mora). The ethnicity question contains “five separate response categories and one area where respondents could write in a specific Hispanic group [if their country of origin was not listed as a previous option],” (“About-About Hispanic Origin”). The first category on the census pertaining to ethnicity, was for individuals who did not identify as as Hispanic/Latino and the remaining categories included, “Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano”; “Puerto Rican”; “Cuban”; and “another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin,” along with write in answers that the OMB would later use to define the Hispanic category (The United States Central Bureau). Using the racial and ethnic categories mandated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, government agencies are able to use respondents’ self-report data to create an …show more content…
government measures Hispanic as it relates to the conceptual definition of Hispanic chosen for this project. The advantage is that the data collected on Hispanic individuals in government surveys are all self-report data. Because this conceptual definition specifies that a Hispanic individual have cultural ties to Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South or Central America, or other Spanish-speaking country, only the individual answering the census questions would be privy to information regarding their cultural background . The data would not be as accurate if interviewers were charged with figuring out if respondents were Hispanic by accessing skin color or hair for instance. An individual’s phenotype will not always be a clear indicator of that person’s ethnic and racial roots and self-report data is the best means to get a clear measure of both race and